


Cats and Mouses

by Aquaria



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Badass Ian and Lip, Brotherly relationship between Ian and Lip, Dealing with the aftermath of a kidnapping, F/M, Fighting, Homophobic Language, Kidnapping, M/M, Manipulation, Mystery/murder, Obsession, Obsessive Mickey, Seductive Ian, Sexual Frustration, Slightly paranoid and obsessive Lip, Stalking, Violence, creepiness, dark themes, maybe torture, referenced rape
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 14:05:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14956053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquaria/pseuds/Aquaria
Summary: A serial killer rape and kill teenage boys in the South Side of Chicago. Lip Gallagher is kidnapped but manages to escape, yet is unable to identify his aggressor.The police is stuck, and the killer starts to send creepy messages to both Lip and Ian. They understand they must discover the killer on theirown when some people starts acting strangely, especially Mickey Milkovitch, who seems to have developped a particular interest on Ian.Happening during Season 1





	1. Last Resort

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everybody! This is my first Shameless fanfic, I hope you'll enjoy it! This will focus a lot on Lip and Ian's brotherly bond, but don't worry, I'm not forgetting Mickey and Mandy in this! Don't hesitate to review and spot out any grammar mistakes!
> 
> All the chapter will be named after a song. Here it's Last Resort by Papa Roach
> 
> Don't hesitate to review and spot out any grammar mistakes!

Being a Gallagher meant being used to face a lot of unexpected things. You were also familiar with danger. Yet when Lip Gallagher woke up completely dizzy and nauseous, tied to a wooden pole in a place he never saw before, he understood immediately that this was something he never confronted before.

He blinked several times to overcome the dizziness. His head was spinning badly, his body was shaking uncontrollably, and Lip couldn’t really understand what was happening, his mind too foggy to analyze the situation or his environment. The first thing he got was this: his back was leaning against something hard. The second thing: he couldn’t move away. Why? One look down and he felt his heart tighten in fear: ropes were tied around him and those hurt him. He wanted to take those off, but his body wouldn’t respond. He wanted to puke too. The stale air was almost smothering, it smelled like there was something rotten, metallic in it. For a moment, Lip wondered if breathing wouldn’t poison his lungs.

Was he drunk? He tried to recollect his memories, to understand. He had to understand what was happening, right? Was that a dream? Was he in a nightmare?

What happened…He breathed in deeply, he tried to move his legs, but his ankles were tied. He tried to move his arms but those were even more restrained, wrapped around the pole behind his back. He was tied, restrained…Then he remembered…The sting in his neck…The hand on his mouth…

The nausea was more intense. The air was still suffocating, it was making things worse. He closed his eyes and tried to count to twenty to calm down. It was a bit like being drunk, but way scarier. His head was spinning badly.

‘ _Alright, Lip, calm down. Try to steady yourself, then try to understand what’s happening_.’

He forced himself to take long, deep breath, to count several times to twenty. Eventually, he felt a bit better. He opened his eyes and looked around him. He was in a basement, a small one, with no windows at all. There was a wooden stair leading toward the door, and... Lip shivered as he why the air had that metallic smell.

There was dried blood on the walls, dried blood on the ground, dried blood right under him where was sitting.

Lip breathed harder at this, fear digging in his chest. He couldn’t help but also notice a long, thin wooden stick which seemed to have dried blood on it…There was a small table, and from his position, he couldn’t see what was on it, but he had a bad feeling. Oh Gosh, where was he?!

What happened? That was what he needed to remember. He tried to focus and rewind his memories. There was school…Ian and he parted, his brother leaving with Mandy while he was going with Karen…Yes! He had spent time with Karen…His spirit worked and he recollected the events.

He was walking out of Karen’s house when it happened. As usual, he went to see his girlfriend on Saturday, and he got home later than usual. He was walking in the streets casually, smoking all the while. He remembered thinking that he would have to give some of that shit to Ian, they always liked to share good weed.

He didn’t notice the car slowly advancing toward him. He didn’t pay attention the sound of a car door opening. It was nothing unusual after all. The feeling of a needle in his neck while an arm was sneaking around his chest was very unusual though. He tried to trash and hit whoever did this, but the substance he was injected with acted fast. When he tried to hit the person, he just fell into their arms and he was half-dragged to a car. That’s all he could understand before plunging into darkness.

That was all…Who did that? Someone captured him, but who? He didn’t remember any face at all…He breathed in deeply to make the last waves of nausea disappear. His eyes fell on the dried blood again. Other people had been killed here…Suddenly, something he heard about came back in his memory: three guys had been found dead recently in the South Side of Chicago. While dead people weren’t rare in their streets, those murders had drown attention. The three guys, two teens and one young man, had been kidnapped, raped and tortured (probably for some days) before being killed. It didn’t seem like something mafia would do, they were starting to speak about a serial killer. Lip hadn’t pay that much attention to it…And now…He wished he was wrong, but it looked like this was it…The police was right: a serial killer was in the neighborhood, and he was the latest victim…

That thought repulsed and panicked him, it was like a violent blow in each fiber of his being, and it made him want to puke. He wanted to scream but he couldn’t find his voice. He thought about his siblings, Fiona, Ian, Debbie, Carl, Liam…Maybe he would never saw them again! No…No, that couldn’t happen, he had to escape!

He thought about screaming but he stopped himself. If the serial killer didn’t gag him, it was probably because no one would hear him. In fact, screaming would surely get him unwanted attention…No, he had to stay silent. He tested his bonds. Those were tight but not that much, maybe he would be able to loosen those but he would need time, and if his captors came back before he could do it...He forced on his arms and twisted the ropes around him. His wrists were tied together and another piece of ropes kept his chest against the pillar. His fingers searched for an eventual knot but couldn’t find anything.

His fingers grazed the corner of the pillar and he noticed those were actually a bit sharp. It wasn’t as sharp as a knife, sure, but friction would cut the rope eventually. Let’s just hope he would have time to do that. He started rubbing the ropes around his wrists vigorously. It wasn’t easy at all, his arms were partly restrained, but he managed to do it. He felt cramps soon because of the repetitive action, but he wouldn’t stop. Simply looking at the blood on the ground was enough to keep him moving. He thought of his family to help as well. If he was able to do that, he would return to them!

It took long but he started to feel the hold around his wrists loosen a bit as the rope was getting cut. It was working, if he went on like that, he would have his hands free, he would only have to get out of those bonds around his chest, but he could do it! He was a Gallagher after all! They knew how to get out of problems!

A loud sound echoed. Lip stopped all motions. The door just opened. Too late…It was too late. He looked up to see a man entering. He had a hood over his head. Gloves on his hands. Oh no…Lip tensed at the sight. The man slowly stepped and approached the table first. Metallic sounds. Lip felt cold sweat, he had to do something, all he could do was talk. Maybe he could distract the guy like that.

“My…My name is Philip.”

 _Don’t tell him your last name, just in case_. The man turned to look at him, maybe he was surprised, Lip wasn’t sure, he couldn’t see his expression.

“Maybe you already know that. My family calls me Lip, though. I have brothers and sisters, five more exactly. Our parents are rarely around; in fact our mother left us a while ago. Our father, well, he doesn’t really live with us anymore either, but we still see him hanging around at times.”

The man went toward him and a constricting feeling gripped his guts. The man crouched before him with a knife in his hands. Oh Gosh. Cold sweat ran over his forehead again. He kept talking:

“I was born in the South Side. I always lived there, except for a few times when we were all separated and brought in foster care. I missed my family a lot back then, you don’t imagine how much.”

He could see the man tense a bit and lower the knife a bit. Maybe he was hesitating. Maybe talking about his life could make that guy empathize with him.

“We missed each other a lot, and I missed my friends as well. I didn’t have a girlfriend back then, but I guess I would have missed her if I had one. It changed, though. I mean I do have a girlfriend now. I like her a lot...We didn’t talk much about the future for now, but I’m thinking about it…Maybe going to college together if she wants to go there too.”

The captor was still not moving, except for a slight shaking. Maybe he should keep talking.

“I’m not sure what I want to do later, maybe working in the robotic field, I like that a lot. My sister thinks it’s a good idea, she really wants me to go to college later. I don’t know what Karen…”

The man tensed and looked straight at him. Lip stopped right there, he shouldn’t have done that! He couldn’t say any name! Now the killer might go after her!

“I mean, I’m not sure what I want to do after, there is a lot of pressure, but I’m pretty sure I want some children of mine later. Not too many, it’s not easy to take care of many children, but a few.”

He didn’t really know what to say, this wasn’t easy, because the man remained silent, he could only guess things through body language. Was it even working?  

“You…You won’t say anything?”

He was met with silence. Suddenly the killer’s hands were around his neck. Lip tensed and tried to wriggle and trash against this, but his legs were bound together! He saw his siblings’ faces, he saw his girlfriend’s face, even his father’s face…He would never see them again! Tears started to drop out of his eyes as his lungs were aching badly.

“Don’t…”

The hands suddenly released him and he coughed and tried to take back his breath. His heart was racing madly. The man was panting as well, he grabbed Lip’s hair and forced him to look at him. The boy tried to keep a brave face in spite of his blatant fear. When he looked in the man’s eyes, it seemed like his captor was conflicted. Before Lip could figure out something to say, a vibrating sound was heard. The man abruptly stood up, took out his phone and left the room. Panting, the young Gallagher realized he just escaped death and that he might not be so lucky next time…

 


	2. Run, Boy, Run

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to the people who reviewed! Hoep you'll like this one as well.
> 
> Song: Run, Boy, Run by Woodkid

As soon as the door was closed, Lip went back trying to cut the ropes. He had to do this! His bonds started to loosen and suddenly he felt his bounds breaking. He got some hope at this; he wriggled his wrists out of the bonds and managed to get his hands free.

After that, he wriggled and struggled like crazy, he relentlessly moved his arms and tried to lift those up. After a good struggle, he managed to move those up more and more and soon he was free from the pillar. Yes! Yes, he did it! He untied his feet in no time and was finally standing; he went to the door immediately but stopped before opening it. The last thing he wanted was to find himself face to face with his kidnapper who was probably armed. He put his ear on the door and listened carefully. No sounds. The door was open. In his precipitation to leave, the man had left it unlocked. He opened it carefully and looked around; The inside was obviously abandoned, yet it was clean. In fact it smelled like bleach. Lip advanced carefully toward the front door but when he tried to open it, he realized it was locked. He went to a window. Outside, there was pretty much nothing but a road and fields. Damn! He tried to open the window but it was stuck. Lip went back to the door and kicked it and though it resisted the first time, it opened the second time. A feeling of triumph washed through him even though he was still in the shit.

Lip looked around to see if there was a car or something he could use but there was nothing. It was really nothing a small house abandoned in the countryside. The sun was raising, it was the early morning and thank God Lip had his jacket on, otherwise he would have been frozen. He went toward the road. He didn’t know where he was but he saw the city from afar. He started to run and prayed that his captor wouldn’t see him on the road and that he would find a gas station or something. He ran longer and faster than he ever did.

**O o O**

The rest of the Gallaghers were worried. Lip would spend a night out at times, but he would always tell someone where he was. Yet he didn’t come back home last evening, even though they said they would spend the night together with V, Kev and Steve. At first, Fiona thought he had changed his mind at the last minute and stayed at Karen’s house. But that morning, Ian went to her place and both Karen and Sheila told him that Lip left last evening. In fact, he had told them he would go home with his family. That was when Fiona truly started to worry.

Ian decided to search for him; he went to Mandy’s house, just in case she knew something and because he needed a friend. She and his brother were getting along, maybe she heard of something. Yet Mandy was absolutely clueless.

“Why? Isn’t he with a girl or something?”

“He only hangs out with Karen, he was at her place but she told me he left last night. I have no idea where he went.”

“He is a big boy, Ian, you’re probably worried too much.”

“You know what’s happening recently. Those boys who were found, they were the same age as Lip…”

Mandy suddenly looked worried as well when she was reminded of that. Ian couldn’t help but notice she looked more concerned than Karen did. “Okay. Let’s look for him.”

“The fuck are doing here, Gallagher?”

Both Mandy and Ian turned to see Mickey coming back home. He looked at Ian in a weird way. Since some times, Mickey was often antagonizing Ian, he would go and steal stuff from ‘Kash and Grab’ more often and would always taunt Ina one way or another. Mandy rolled her eyes at him as if she was merely annoyed, yet she was a bit afraid of what her brother would do. She had no idea why, but Mickey kept picking up on Ian. She would always try to stop it, but her brother was hard-headed.

“Just fuck off, Mickey. Come, Ian.”

They left the house and went around, asking people if they had seen Lip or not. They went to the alibi, to some of his friends, they started checking the hospital as well. This was really starting to worry Ian, it wasn’t like his brother to give no sign of life like this. Did he get into some business to get money? Maybe it was only that, maybe he was hiding from someone he stole money from, or something. But what if it was that killer? He had to go to the police, that was the only solution. Usually, Gallaghers wouldn’t go to the police, but usually, no serial killer would rape, torture and kill boys around. Yet when he and Mandy decided to go at the closest police station, Ian received a call from Fiona.

“Hey, Fi.”

“ _Ian, listen, we found Lip_.”

“Oh, finally, where is he? Is he alright?”

He saw the relief on Mandy’s face as she heard those words. “ _He is at a police station, he has been found, okay, he is alive_.”

He could hear her voice shaking. “What is he doing there?”

“… _Apparently he was kidnapped_.”

“What?!”

“ _I don’t have the details, come home, we’re all going there. But he is okay, that’s what they told me_.”

Ian hung up and explained it all to Mandy while rushing home. She had a hard time following him, but she understood Lip had been in danger. She wanted to go with them, but she understood she would be an outsider.

“Take care of him,” she told Ian. The red-head only nodded before getting into Jimmy’s car, where his siblings had taken place as well. Debbie and Carl asked questions during all the ride, even though no one could answer them, yet Fiona guessed they couldn’t stop themselves. She had thousands questions as well.

In the police station, Lip was still trembling. Even though he was now in security, he was trembling. His head hurt badly, but at least he didn’t feel nauseous. He need to smoke something, he would have given anything to have Ian to share some weed or just a cigarette. He wanted all of his family. He almost wished Tony was here, the guy was the only cop he knew well and liked. But Tony didn’t work in this station. The cops kept asking questions, but he could hardly give them anything; the guy had a mask and gloves, and as soon as he got free, he just ran for his life. What could he tell them, except for the fucking location! That was already a lot! He told the cops how he spoke about his family. Now that he thought about it, that had been an incredibly stupid move! What if it sparked the madman’s interest? What if he decided to go after them now?! Why did he speak of his family?! What if one of them died?! The cop didn’t look really worried about that, apparently, the guy had a significant type of victim. Yet that wasn’t enough to reassure Lip, not at all.

Eventually, he was left in peace and they told him to wait a bit for his family. He was tired but unable to sleep. His belly hurt now as well, he was hungry. He didn’t ask for food though, because even if he was hungry, he didn’t feel like swallowing anything. It came in his mind that the guy would have raped him as well…He would have tortured him…He remembered what he heard about the case, how the victims had been found battered and tortured for some days before being killed. He couldn’t help but imagine himself dead…

“Lip!”

He turned his head to see Fiona running toward him along with the rest of his siblings, Liam in Ian’s arms. He stood up and let them hug him, relieved and happy to see them.

“Are you alright?!” His big sister asked with a shaky voice.

“I’m fine.”

“Jesus, we were so scared,” Ian murmured while embracing him.

“You can take him back home. You’ll have to be very careful, though. No going out alone, stay at home during evening and you’ll have to check the doors and windows carefully before going to bed.”

Fiona accepted and passed an arm around Lip’s shoulder before leading him out. They would indeed make sure that no one in the family would be targeted again. During all the travel, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy. He was truly grateful to be back to his family, but…This feeling of being watched, of being seen as a victim, he felt incredibly bad and while they were trying to make him feel better, he felt even guiltier and shittier. Once at home, Fiona turned to him again:

“Do you need something? Are you hungry? I’ll make lunch now.”

“Yeah…I would need a shower too.”

“Okay, go take a shower, take your time.” She gave him another hug: “You can’t imagine how happy I am. I’m sorry if I’m a bit clingy right now, but I can’t help it.

“I can manage,” he whispered.

They broke their embrace and he left without looking at his other siblings. Strangely, their stare felt invasive as well. Yet it was his family, why was he feeling like that toward them? Ian wanted to go and talk to him but his brother would probably need space. Maybe later.

“Why would someone try to kill Lip?”

“It’s a serial killer, Debs, Lip isn’t the only one.”

“He’ll go in prison, now, will he?”

Ian and Fiona looked at each other. How could they explain her that the police might not find who did it? And what if that killer decided Lip shouldn’t have escaped? Ian knew one thing: Lip always protected him, so he wouldn’t sit around and do nothing. He went into their room, and when Lip came back from the shower, Ian sat there, and waited for him to say something. Lip hesitated, he felt like he was going to burst. He wanted to tell Ian to stop looking at him, to get away and leave him alone. He wanted to confess everything to him. His back turned away, looking at the wall and not at his brother, he suddenly uttered:

“I spoke of us.”

“What do you mean?”

“When that guy…He was before me, he had a knife. I was tied, so I couldn’t do anything. So I just opened my fucking big mouth…”

He told Ian what happened, how he was taken, how he woke up, what he said to the psycho, the killer’s reaction, and finally how he managed to escape. Lip hardly ever looked at him; he couldn’t hold his brother’s stance, yet if there was someone he could speak to, it was Ian. He wanted to protect him, a part of him wished to spare him from those horrors, but the words were flowing nonetheless. With the cops, it had been like a medical exam, invasive but distant at the same time. Right now, with his brother, speaking felt like some venom was expulsed from his body. Once he was done, the red-head didn’t know what to say. Lip had always been strong, he didn’t know how he managed to survive this…What should he say to his brother who just faced death? And who was feeling guilty on top of that?

“It’s a good thing you spoke to him, it’s probably what saved you.”

“But what about all of you? I spoke about our private lives. I thought not saying any names would be enough, but he just has to hang around and he’ll find where I’ll live! What if he goes after you?”

“Lip, you don’t have to feel guilty for being alive! We’ll be careful, we’ll stick together, and nothing will happen! Hell, maybe they’ll catch that motherfucker soon!”

“And what if they don’t? What if one of you dies?”

Ian breathed in deeply. He had to admit this was a scary perspective indeed, but that wasn’t what Lip needed to hear. “How many times did you protect me, Lip? How many times did you help this family?”

“It’s not the same…”

“Yes it is! You did what you had to do to survive, and…that’s what you had to do because we need you, and now we’ll have your back.”

Love and guilt filled Lip. Love for his little brother who was so supportive and guilty at the thought he might have endangered him. Ian embraced him all of sudden and Lip hugged him as well. Ian looked at him once again.

“Hey, don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll find something and end this. Now I’ll call Mandy, she’s probably still worried.”

“Mandy?”

“Yeah, I looked out for you that morning, since you weren’t back; she went with me.”

He didn’t know what to think about it, he didn’t even know why it made an effect on him. Mandy was Ian’s best friend, it wasn’t surprising she did that, wasn’t it? After Ian was done telling her the news, Lip spoke once more:

“There is something I missed, I’m sure of that. I don’t know what, but I’m sure there is something else I could have said to the cops. Fuck it, I just can’t…”

“You couldn’t see his face?”

“No, but there was something, I don’t know why, but I feel like…I don’t know.”

“You’re smart, you’ll figure it out.”

Fiona called them to eat. Lip remembered he was hungry as hell. It felt incredibly strange to sit with his family for lunch after what happened _last night_ , as if he was in some sort of dream. He almost had the impression he was a stranger watching some sort of movie, he felt exterior to everything. It freaked him out and enraged him. Was he damaged because of what that bastard did to him?! Would he feel like that for long? He tried to reason himself, it was probably only shock, maybe he would get better with time. He ate, nobody was speaking much, Steve tried to make a bit of conversation to relax the mood and Lip felt thankful for that.

Ian tried not to watch his brother much, he didn’t want to smother him. He wanted to ask him many questions, but it would have to wait. Lip told him what happened, he was aware it demanded a lot of efforts to speak, because Lip had avoided his eyes when he was talking. All his life, his big brother had protected him, and now…Ian had the feeling it would be his turn to protect him.

“Promise we’ll have each other’s backs,” Ian said softly.

“I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mickey will appear more in the next chapter, promise!


	3. Hey, Brother

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the third chapter! This one is longer, hope you'll like it!  
> Song: Hey, Brother (Jada and Kyson Facer version). There is a really nice AMV with that song btw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQFJFte502I

Later that day, Lip was alone in their room. Ian had left to do some homework in the kitchen, in order to give him some privacy. Lip guessed he should do homework as well, it was Spring break, though he still had time. When he thought about it, it was a good thing he was captured at that moment. At least now, he would have a few days to prepare to return to school. He heard his phone ring and smiled when he saw the name: “Hey, Karen.”

“ _Lip! Are you alright? I’m watching the news, I saw what happened to you_.”

“The news?”

“ _Yeah, they say you got kidnapped and escaped. Are you alright?_ ”

“Wait a sec.”

Lip felt frozen at this. He went downstairs, Carl was watching TV along with Debbie; he took the remote and changed the channel. The two looked at him in surprise, but Lip didn’t pay attention. He just looked at the screen and saw that they were indeed talking about him. He caught only the last few minutes but that was enough. Some dumbass reporters spoke of him…People would know! Fuck! That was the last thing he needed! He breathed hard and went back in his room. He felt weird…Almost violated…People spoke about what happened…His neighbors would know…

“Lip?”

He saw Ian, Debbie and Carl standing there. He didn’t look at them and just said slowly: “I didn’t want people to know…”

“Why?”

“Debs, Carl, leave us please,” Ian said gently.

Not listening to Ian, their little sister hugged Lip affectionately and her brother passed an arm around her shoulders. Carl hugged him as well.

“It’s okay if people learn. That way they’ll know you’re brave,” she murmured.

Lip let out a shaky breath. If only it worked that way…It was as if everyone would see what happened to him, he felt…Violated. It was as if he had been stripped and his memories taken out of his brain for everyone to see. Debbie and Carl eventually left and Ian sat at his brother’s side.

“People around will see me like a fucking victim. It was as if everyone had seen what happened.”

Fuck that, it was as if he was stripped naked before everyone. He looked at Ian and felt repulsed with himself when he saw his brother’s eyes. He used to be the brother Ina looked up to, relied on, and now…His brother was looking at him, with worry, carefully, as if he was gonna break. One night, one fucking bad thing happened to him, and that was enough to destroy the image he had built?! His own brother was seeing like…Like a fucking victim! And he was talking like one! Why did he tell Ian everything that happened to him?!

“Leave me alone.”

“Lip…”

“I said leave me alone, for fuck’s sake!”

His brother didn’t say a word to him and just stood up slowly. Lip regretted even though he wanted to see him leave.

“Sorry,  but I need to stay alone.”

“Do you want me to call Kash and Linda? I can explain them I can’t come today, just in case you change your mind.”

“No, no! Go to work, it’s fine. I’ll stay here and…I don’t know, I’ll do some homework and shit, but I won’t move from here. We still need money and I still have a fucking life, the world hasn’t ended!”

Ian just nodded and left. When he came at work, Linda and Kash were already arguing. They hardly noticed his arrival, and maybe it was for the best. Without saying a word to them, he started to work. He couldn’t help but think of the news, a few people in the streets asked Lip how he was, and though it was probably out of good will, it felt awkward as well. He was refilling the shelves when Kash came toward him.

“Hey, I heard what happened to your brother. Is he alright?”

“As alright as one can be after that. I don’t know what kind of motherfucker can do that.”

“Let’s hope they’ll find him. If you or Lip need anything, you know you can ask.”

Ian smiled to him. Kash had his flaws but he was sweet. The man rose a hand to graze his cheek but someone entered the store and Kash stepped away from him. His boss went back to the counter when he saw it was Mickey entering. Ian hadn’t seen him yet, he was focused on his work when he suddenly felt a hand grabbing his arm so tightly it hurt. He turned to Mickey with wide eyes. He pulled on Ian’s arm, making him step slightly closer.

“Need this.”

He took the can Ian was holding while the red head freed his arm from his grasp. They were hidden by another shelf, Kash couldn’t see them from this angle, and both boys knew it. Not willing to drag his lover into this, Ian kept his voice low.

“Won’t you stop coming in here?”

“Why? It’s my favorite shop. Got a problem with that?”

“I wouldn’t if you stopped stealing. How about you pay for that shit?”

A hand gripped Ian’s neck and he found himself backed against the shelf. The dark-haired boy got closer and Ian tried to push him away but with no success. “Or what? What will happen?” A weird feeling invaded the redhead, the threat was obvious and it wasn’t what scared him, no. It wasn’t the hand around his neck, it wasn’t even squeezing. It was this proximity and this look in Mickey’s eyes. The boy was enjoying this too much, it wasn’t just  a display of dominance, but entirely something else. His predatory look, and the way he breathed, the closeness…Fear and a wave of adrenaline poured through him.

Ian pushed him away, his heart racing like crazy. Mickey just snorted and left the store under Ian’s eyes and Kash didn’t say a word. The redhead felt absolutely shitty: how could he pretend to help his brother if he didn’t stand up for himself a bit more? But this was hard, Mickey wasn’t anyone, he was well-known in the neighborhood for how dangerous he was and he had already beat up Ian once. And lately, Ian would often cross his path, whether he was hanging out with Mandy or not. He guessed he was unlucky. It kept taunting him, even when Kash suggested him they could go in the backroom, Ian refused, he wasn’t aroused in the slightest. The shop owner guessed he was probably too upset to do anything, the boy needed space, it was normal.

When he came back home, Ian practiced his fighting moves again. He needed to fight properly, he needed to be able to beat down any motherfucker who would mess with him or his family! He practiced in the back-yard, even though it was cold, he didn’t care. He practiced on an old bag he had filled with old rags to serve as a punching bag.

“Ian?”

He turned to see Lip standing near him. “What are you doing?”

“Practicing. If something happens, we’d better be ready.”

“He took me away with a syringe, Ian. It wasn’t a matter of fighting!”

His little brother didn’t answer anything, he didn’t know what to say. Instead, Ian kicked the bag hard, before throwing a punch and a blow with the elbow.

“I have to practice for ROTC anyway.”

Lip had to admit his brother was good at fighting, yet seeing Ian hitting that thing made him angry. He didn’t know where it was coming from, he had seen his brother do that before, and he had encouraged him. So why did he feel the need to yell at him and push him away from that bag? He held himself from doing that and went back inside, furious for some reason.

Ian watched him leave and he felt bad. He knew what he was doing was probably meaningless for now. Maybe he was making Lip shitty because he didn’t want to be protected by his little brother…Maybe it was just the shock. He didn’t know. After all, it had been hardly twenty-four hours since he got captured. He had escaped this morning…Ian punched the bag harder. He started to punch and kick blindly. He was furious because he couldn’t beat this fucker instead! Some piece of shit tried to take his brother away! If only he could get his hands on him! He didn’t know for how long he kept beating that bag, but he felt better. At least, he could pass his anger on that! And maybe Lip would be right, maybe it would be useless, but it certainly couldn’t do any harm to train himself to punch. No one could know what would happen soon, and maybe in the end his fighting skills would be of help.

“Ian? Are you alright?”

He was surprised to see Steve standing in the door’s frame. He nodded: “Yeah, I have ROTC training tomorrow, I’m practicing.”

Steve went to him: “Look, I imagine you’re feeling really bad after what happened. I feel bad enough already, so I can’t even imagine how it is for you.”

“You mean to have my brother kidnapped? And to think that asshole is still outside? Why didn’t they catch him already?”

“It takes time.”

“Well, what if he kills someone else before they catch him? What if he comes back for Lip?!”

Saying those words aloud felt kinda good. Steve wished to tell him he wouldn’t, but he couldn’t guarantee that. “We’ll all take care of one another. Is that why you’re training?”

“Yeah…” He threw his elbows at it a few times. “Lip seems to think it’s useless, but it cannot hurt.”

“Indeed. But you know, the best is to spare with a partner.” With that, Steve took off his jacket and stood on guard. Ian laughed a bit.

“You?”

“Hey, ask Fiona and V, that bouncer at the club wasn’t laughing after I punched him.”

Ian remembered that, it was the night he actually met his sister. Ian got on guard as well and they threw at each other. At first, Steve seemed to have the upper hand. His arm circled Ian’s neck, but the redhead hit him in the ribs. Steve blocked some punches, but Ian succeeded to hit him. After a few other blows, Ian managed to throw him on the ground. Steve managed to get up and after a few times, it was he who threw Ian on the ground thanks to a back kick. Yet Ian wasn’t over. With all the rage he had, he got up and tackled Jimmy down. He was tired of being powerless, he would show those fuckers! He straddled him, Steve tried to reverse their position but the boy hit his neck to cut off his breath. The man was smothered and he extended his hands to show the boy he had to stop. Ian felt bad and his anger lessened. It was Steve, not that fucker of a killer! 

“Cough…Wow…cough…I know I shouldn’t…cough cough…Ever mess with you!”

“I’m sorry!” Asked he while helping Steve to stand up.

“I suggested we fought, I was expecting some pain! Though I wasn’t expecting to have my ass kicked like that.”

“He surely did give you a bad time!”

That was Veronica’s voice. The two were surprised to see Fiona, V and Kev standing some feet afar. “We didn’t want to interrupt you,” Kev explained, “A good fight is always nice to watch.”

“Ian, are you okay? Where is Lip?”

“He is inside. I was training on the bag when Steve suggested we should spare.”

“Okay.”

“Hey, more seriously, your sister told us what happened. We’ll be here to help as well,” V murmured to Ian comfortingly.

Fiona went up and to the boy’s room, yet it was locked. “Lip, are you in here?”

“Yeah, leave me alone!”

“…Kev and V are downstairs, if you wanna…”

“Fiona, seriously, leave me alone!”

Lip couldn’t help himself. After leaving Ian in the backyard, he had taken the family’s laptop and locked himself in the bedroom. He had started to make researches about serial killers, about people who escaped them. He had also made researches about the killer who took him away as well. He carefully avoided the fresh news talking about him, and he was still reading everything he could find about that killer. What he learned was horrific.

The three boys had been whipped, multiple times. Salt had been spread on their wounds. They had been raped multiple times as well. They had been beaten and throttled, bruises showing clearly the action had been repeated multiple times, suffocation made not to kill but to hurt. Hey all had little gashes on the neck or the wrists. One had passed out after blood loss, one had been stabbed ten times, the last one had been beaten to death…

Reading this made Lip feel like he was going to vomit, but he couldn’t take his eyes away from this. He saw their pictures, he hadn’t known any of them personally, but he knew they didn’t live that far away from his own neighborhood. He looked at their faces…It was _their_ blood he had seen on the ground back there. It was _their_ blood he had smelled in the air…He had seen the whip, the tools used to torture them…And yet he made it alive, in contrary to them. Why? What made him so lucky and not them? He felt wrong just looking at them, as if he had done something bad…But he had done nothing wrong! Yet he couldn’t scrub that feeling away. That air…That air had been stalled with blood…He felt the need to vomit again at that thought.

He eventually unlocked the door when Carl started to pound because he wanted to come in. “Hey, you okay? You’re thinking about today?” He just lay on the bed, back turned to the room and facing the wall. He knew Carl was clumsily trying to reach out to him, but he didn’t want to speak. He spoke enough to Ian today and as a result his brother thought he had to beat a stupid bag into pulp! He felt the need to go to him, yell in his face that it was useless, but he didn’t. Eventually, he heard someone coming close to his bed.

“Lip…We said we would have each other’s back. We got this, okay?”

Ian…He didn’t answer anything at all, he couldn’t. Otherwise, he would have broken into tears. He eventually did that night, smothering it in the pillow to avoid waking his brothers. Fuck, he truly turned into some victim.

**O o O**

He visited Karen the next day. He went during daytime, Fiona wanted to walk him there but Lip refused strongly. He promised he would come before dark and that he wouldn’t walk in a  deserted street. He felt like a fucking kid!

He was greeted by Sheila as usual and smiled awkwardly to Eddie. He remembered that he and Frank were actually living in the same roof, his father being Sheila’s lover and Eddie just stuck here because he had nowhere else to go. Really a weird cohabitation…The man would usually glare at him whenever he would come and visit Karen. Lip was perfectly aware that he didn’t like to see them together, probably because a Gallagher wasn’t the kind of boy one would dream of for their little girl. This time however, Eddie gave him a slight nod, maybe he was feeling sorry for him. Great, he would have preferred the usual glare! Karen immediately went to him:

“Hey, how are you? Come, let’s go upstairs.

They went to her room, but when she started to make advances on him, he felt unwilling. It was her, though, so why was he reacting like that? She was nothing like the killer, she had an angelic face and all. So why couldn’t he get in the mood? Did that guy killed that in him as well?

“I’m sorry, I’m just not feeling like it.”

“Why? Did he do something to you?”

“No, he didn’t have time. But, it’s…I don’t know, it’s weird?”

“Is it something I did?”

“No. No, it’s not about you.”

“I wanted to change your mind. What do you wanna do?”

“I dunno…I just wanted to see you a bit, and…I wanted to go away from home. They all look at me as if I…I don’t know as if I was going to break.”

“What happened to you, actually? I don’t know, they didn’t say much; they spoke about what happened to the other guys, though. It’s fucking scary when you think about it.”

“Yeah…”

He started to wonder if going there was a good idea. Karen was endearing, she was hot, she was really something…But supportive? He didn’t know what he wanted. She was looking at him with sympathy but also with some curiosity. Great…Either he was a victim or an object of curiosity! No, this was his girlfriend, if someone could give him what he needed, it was her, right?

“I really don’t want to go to school anymore. I don’t know, maybe I should quit…”

“Why not, school’s shitty anyway. I thought about that too, you know my mom is like, oh no, you shouldn’t drop school, but who gives a fuck, honestly?”

She spoke about herself for some times, Lip felt again as if he was watching a scene from the outside. As if he wasn’t really here, because it made kinda no sense. Then Karen asked: “Are you okay?”

“Hu…I was just thinking.”

“Still about what happened? You know, I could really try to take your mind away from it…”

She went to him and started to touch him. Her look felt wrong…he suddenly pushed her away, and though he didn’t hurt her, she looked shocked as if he had hit her.

“I’m sorry.”

With that, he left. He heard Sheila: “Oh, Lip, honey, is everything alright?”

“Yeah…”

He just stormed out. Karen went downstairs and both her parents looked at her questioningly. The girl just shook her head with a disappointed face.

“Oh honey, don’t take it personally, I’m sure he is simply really hurt. He probably just need time, it’s a very human reaction…”

“Yeah, thanks, mom.”

She went upstairs again. Sheila had a sad face: “Oh, I wouldn’t like that to happen to me.”

“No one will ever capture that, I’m sure of it,” Eddie growled.

While he was walking out, Lip felt really agitated and frustrated. Either he had people who were too careful, looking at him like a poor little things, either he had people acting like he was an object of curiosity, as if what happened wasn’t that much, just a kinda creepy story to tell! Why couldn’t he have someone reacting in a right way?! But what was the right way? He wasn’t even sure to know what kind of reaction he wanted to get…When he thought this couldn’t be worse, he saw Frank going to Sheila’s .

“Son! Hey, I heard something happened to you.”

“Since when do you care, Frank?!”

“I wanna know what happens to my kids, what’s wrong with that?”

“Just leave me alone!”

He walked at a faster pace, some people recognized him in the streets and he walked faster, almost ran. Once at home, he took the computer again and made researches. It felt like his head would burst. He checked up the last news, and saw the police hadn’t caught anyone yet. He had escaped yesterday morning! They had all yesterday and today to search for him! Why couldn’t they find anything! He continued his researches, weirdly, it was the only thing he felt like doing.

**O o O**

Meanwhile, work went as usual for Ian. Today, he even had the good surprise to have Mandy coming in the shop instead of her brother.

She asked if she could come and see Lip, but the redhead told her that his brother was acting a bit off and that she should wait a bit. Ian was nervous at the idea to come home. Lip hardly spoke to him today. He didn’t know what to do, he wanted to give him some space, but he didn’t want to leave him alone as well. He heard footsteps behind him and started to cringe. Turning round to make sure this was no attacker, he immediately saw Mickey and his thuggish expression.

“Missed me, Gallagher?”

“Leave me alone.”

“Or what? What if I want to bother little Ian a bit?”

“I have no time for your shit!”

“Because of your brother? I must admit it was a surprise.”

Ian felt a bit surprised at those words. Mickey went on: “I would have bet on you. I mean you’re pretty much a little victim. But now maybe that psycho found Lip very annoying. Can’t blame him.”

He had that fucking laugh and Ian lost it; usually he was intimidated by Mickey but anger blinded him. He rushed at him and punched him hard in the face. The brunet didn’t expect that obviously. He hit Ian as well and the two started to fight, Ian was lighter but taller. They kicked and punched each other, Mickey tried to tackle Ian down but the redhead just sent his elbow in his opponent’s nose. Mickey’s head was thrown back and Ian took the opportunity to slap his throat hard. The brunet was bent in half, struggling for breath. Ian sent his knee hard in his stomach and gave one final push to throw Mickey on the ground. The Milkovitch fell on the side, a kick in his ribs followed and the redhead yelled:

“Don’t ever touch my family! Hear me, fucker?! You don’t talk about my brother!”

Ian gave him one last kick in the ribs. With that he left. He was trembling out of emotions. He was angry but also amazed. He just beat Mickey fucking Milkovitch! Granted it had been a close fight, but he still did. Anger and protectiveness toward his brother had made him stronger. Yet he would take something to protect himself. Linda had brought a gun at the store, he knew what he would do if Mickey tried to threaten him. For now, he would just go home.

Once he got home, Fiona noticed a few bruises and he simply said he got into a fight and refused to tell more. She gave up, but Lip was agitated. After what happened to him, and after all the horrors he read about on the net, seeing his brother with bruises on his face felt like a fucking stab. He wouldn’t let that pass easily. After dinner, Ian went into their room and Lip followed him. No matter how wrong he was feeling right now, he wouldn’t let his little brother being hurt. Once they were sure to be alone, Lip asked:

“What happened to you?”

“Mickey fucking Milkovitch.”

“That asshole beat you.”

“He tried.” He smirked at that and Lip frowned.

“What happened?”

“…What if I want you to leave me alone? Maybe I don’t want to talk to you either.” The look Lip gave made Ian feel bad. His brother went through something way harder. “Fine, he tried to mess up with me, but I got the upper hand.”

“No shit? You beat up Mickey? Why? What did he do?”

“…Nothing much, you know. Just the usual shit with Kash and all.”

He sensed the lie. “Come on, tell me.”

Ian hesitated. After a short moment he turned to Lip: “Only if you promise to talk to me as well.”

“…It…You don’t need to know everything that happens in my head, okay?”

“You don’t have to tell me everything, I just don’t want you to push me away.”

 “Stop with that stupid shit! There are always things we kept for ourselves. You didn’t tell me right away that you were gay.”

“Yeah, and you didn’t like it one bit. You wanted me to speak about it.”

That was true, and it was almost giving Lip a headache. Karen, Frank and now Ian…Yet, he wanted to keep talking to his brother, but he couldn’t act like a pussy and cry on his shoulder! Ian went on:

“I know you want to protect me, but I’m not a little kid anymore. Look, the more I know, the better, because I’m also the kind of guy the killer likes, and the more I know, the better it will be in case something happens to me.”

This made Lip’s stomach ache. Ian could be indeed a target... He was right, if the killer was to come for him…But it wasn’t fair, for fuck’s sake! To him, Ian was still a kid. Yet maybe he was right, maybe sticking together was the best.

“Okay, but…Just tell me you’ll stop looking at me as if I was some fucking porcelain doll, okay? I can’t say I’m at my best, but I’m not going to break or anything, alright? I’m still myself.”

“I never said…”

“I saw the way you looked at me. You were giving me that look one would give to some poor victim. I know I’m technically a victim, but I escaped from that motherfucker!”

“I know! And you did a fucking great job, a lot of people would have been unable to escape. I don’t know if I would have done that well. Lip, I’m worried, but that doesn’t mean I see you as a victim or some shit like that!”

“Then don’t give me that look again. I’m sure I’ll get plenty from other people. I already did when I walked in the street.”

Ian put an arm around his brother’s shoulders and shook him playfully: “Don’t worry, you’ll always be my big brother. My dumbass of a big brother.”

Lip huffed in amusement: “And you’ll always be my dickhead of a little brother!”

They laughed together, relieving the tension. Then Ian felt Lip’s stare and he started to speak. He told him what happened in the store yesterday at first. “And today I saw him again. He told me that…That I was the one who should have taken, even though…Even though he couldn’t blame the killer because you’re annoying.”

He had said that in a breath, he didn’t like it, but Lip wanted to know. He couldn’t conceal if he wanted his brother to speak to him. Lip bit his lip and breathed in deeply. “Okay…Still charming. What a fucker!”

“I know. That’s what got me so riled up, I beat him up.”

“At least one good thing.”

They remained silent for a short moment, until Lip finally decided himself: “Come with me in the van, there is something I wanted to talk about.”

They carefully checked that no one was in the van already, no drunken Frank to overhear them or anything. Once they were absolutely sure, Lip murmured:

“Okay, you know when I told you there was something else I could have told the cops?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I might have figured it out. I researched about serial killers and shit yesterday. While I was doing that, I remembered that movie, _Silence of the Lambs_. You know, at a point, Lecter tells the girl that you don’t seek out things to want, you want what’s under your eyes…Ian, I had the feeling he wasn’t a stranger.”

A cold shiver went through him. No stranger…It made sense and it was scary. “So, you think it’s someone you know?”

“Maybe not personally, but someone who lives in the neighborhood, yeah. I don’t know, but when he was looking at me, something felt a bit familiar, and…It’s not something you can describe, because it was in my guts, but I feel that it was no stranger. And…Now that I think about it, he left to answer his phone. Maybe that’s because his voice would have been familiar to me. It would also explain why he hesitated when I spoke about our family and myself. I’ll talk to the police about it, though I’m not sure it will be useful.”

That made sense. They would have to be very careful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hesitate to review!


	4. Bad Romance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Everyone! Next chapter is up, I hope you'll like it!

The day after his fight with Mickey, Mandy visited Ian. He was training in the back yard again; he expected her to be furious, yet she seemed more concerned than angry.

“Hi. How are you?”

“Fine…I mean, I’m doing okay.”

“What happened between you and Mickey?”

He sat down in the grass and she sat at his side. He was really uneasy but he explained her everything; knowing that her brother said such things made her incredibly uncomfortable. How could Mickey do that?! She knew her brother, he wasn’t the most sensitive guy ever, sure, he could even be a dick, but she never thought he would say something _that_ fucked up. She couldn’t hold a grudge on Ian for beating him after that! In fact, when Mickey admitted that the redhead was the one who beat him, she had known something was wrong. She knew Ian enough now to know he wouldn’t just go and fight against Mickey for no reason. That’s why she wasn’t even angry at him, because she suspected Mickey did something wrong. Hell, she had been right!

“Oh shit…I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with him. Dad isn’t even that much of a dick lately, so it’s not even that.”

“I don’t know, maybe your brother just love to pick up on me.”

“I’m sorry, I told him to leave you alone but he won’t listen. I don’t even know why he bothers you that much.”

“Whatever the reason, I know he’ll come back again for me. I really don’t want things to go wrong, Mandy, I swear. But I can’t let him hurt me or Lip like that.”

“You have every right to defend yourself. How is Lip?”

“We spoke together, It seems like he is holding on.”

She decided to go and check up on him. After all, she hadn’t seen him since he disappeared, at first; she simply thought the family needed space to figure things out. But it had been a few days already and maybe it was time to talk to him. What would she say, though? She found Lip in the room he shared with his brothers, searching for something on the laptop. He looked up when he heard her coming in and was surprised. What was she doing here? He hoped she wasn’t here to talk to him like a poor little thing ready to break, or to look at him as if he was a curiosity.

“Hi, Mandy.”

“Hi.” She leaned against the wall. “Look, I know what Mickey said to Ian. I just want to tell you not to pay attention to it; my brother can be a dumbass, and lately he has been kinda weird anyway.”

“I kinda figured out. But, thanks,” he added, realizing that insulting her brother wasn’t exactly the nicest thing to say.

She didn’t seem to mind much, though; she only tilted her head and asked: “So, any news about that motherfucker?”

“No…I don’t know when they’ll catch him, if they ever do. I don’t see any news about it on the net.”

“Cops really sucks,” she said matter-of-factly.

Lip couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that. She wasn’t talking to him carefully, weighing her words with attention like Fiona, V or Kev would do. She wasn’t looking at him like he was some kind of phenomenon like Karen. She smiled to him and sat at his side. He put the laptop beside him. “I’m really happy to see you safe and sane. But now, if someone could escape, it was you.”

“Why me in particular?”

“You’re smarter than most. And you’re a Gallagher; I know you’re pretty used to get out of shitty situation.”

“Yeah, our parents have replaced education with natural selection.”

She laughed at that, then her smile grew softer:

“I know, this is not something guys from the South Side do, but if you ever feel like talking, you can always have a beer with me, or something like that.”

“Thanks…A beer would be good.” He hesitated and she sensed he wanted to say something. Finally, he let out: “Do you really think there is a reason why I escaped? I mean, me in particular?”

She was a bit surprised at the question. She had no idea how much that had tormented Lip since that shit happened, but the young man would keep wondering why he was alive.

“Well, you’re smart and, as far as I know you, you seem to react quickly when you’re in a bad situation. Maybe you got some luck as well, but I’m pretty sure you couldn’t have escaped if you hadn’t been capable.”

He breathed in deeply. It seemed simple put like that. “So, you think the others died because they weren’t able to escape?”

“I don’t know about them. I just know that you escaped and therefore you did something right for that. And I know I’m happy to see you back.”

He smiled to her; maybe he had needed that: someone to talk to him like he wasn’t broken or changed. They heard Carl and Debbie downstairs, and Lip spoke more softly: “The thing is, sometimes, being alive while they’re dead, it’s just…It feels unfair for them. They should have lived as well.”

“It’s not your fault or anything. It’s fair you’re still alive, it’s on that fucker only if they died.”

He was about to answer something when his phone rang. Karen…He hesitated before picking up, but Mandy shrugged and left the room. He was a bit disappointed, he had to admit it felt kinda nice talking to Mandy. In fact, when he thought about it, he was more at ease with her than with most. It was funny to think that of all the people, Mandy Milkovich would make him feel good enough to talk about his kidnapping.

“Hey, Karen.”

“ _Lip! Hey, how are you? Guess what? Both my dad and Frank are out this evening, so, I have the house for myself_.”

“Okay, what do you wanna do?”

“ _I don’t know, maybe watch some movies, and, well…Catch up on some things._ ”

“Hum…Yeah, okay. I’ll be there, what time do you want me to come?”

“ _9 PM should be fine_.”

After that agreement, he went to see Ian who was in the living room, doing homework.

“So, did the cop get somewhere?” Asked Ian.

“No. I know that it takes time to find hints and all, but they found the place, what else do they need?”

“Don’t ask me…” The redhead spoke in a low tone: “Did you think of what we said? That it could be someone who know?”

“No. I went to the police this morning, to tell them about my impression, but it didn’t seem like it made a lot of effects. And I don’t know who it could be, but if we go according to other killers’ profiles, it would be someone frustrated with their sexuality, someone who would completely hide their homosexual tendencies.”

“In that neighborhood, every gay guy will hide. It could be someone pretending to be homophobic. People who denies their homosexuality often have that kind of reaction.”

“Yeah…I don’t know, the only gay guy hiding his sexuality is Kash.”

“Kash has nothing to do with it, Lip. He never was aggressive with me or anything.”

He didn’t want to tell Ian that serial killers were good to fool their world. But now, it was true that Kash wasn’t the type he imagined doing such atrocities. He seemed like the passive type, not the one who would capture and kill young boys. Yet the killer had been hesitant in the room. If it was Kash, it would make sense, he wouldn’t want to kill his lover’s brother…

“Anyway, when you got captured, I’m pretty sure he was with Linda and the kids,” Ian added.

“If it’s indeed the case he isn’t a suspect anymore.”

“If it’s all you need, I can try to speak to Linda to know what he was doing that night. But it’s really to reassure you, Lip, he has done nothing at all.”

To tell the truth, Lip wasn’t reassured when Ian left for work. He even walked with him, under the pretext to buy a few stuff. Ian wasn’t really fooled, but he humored his brother. After all, Lip could play protective as long as he kept talking to him. Then, as they were getting closer to the store, Ian saw someone he had no wish to confront. Standing at the other side of the road, Mickey was drinking a beer. He had no doubt he was waiting for someone. Lip saw his brother’s look and he tensed as he saw the Milkovich here.

“He is coming for you.”

“I can handle this, don’t worry.”

“I won’t leave you alone!”

“It’s not the first time he’ll try to pick up on me,” Ian assured.

“Wait…Does it happens often?”

They entered the store and Ian put down his bag.

“Yeah, recently he is having more and more fun trying to pick up on me. I always defend myself, I mean I even beat him up yesterday.”

“I won’t let that douche bag touch you!”

“Don’t worry, I got this. There is a gun now and I can use it.”

Lip hesitated. Kash and Mickey around Ian…He didn’t like that in the slightest. “Promise you keep that gun _on you_. Not in a drawer, not hidden somewhere, on you.”

“Alright.”

“And I’ll come to pick you, up, alright?”

“Okay, I’ll wait for you. But won’t you have a date with Karen?”

“I’ll manage.”

“Phillip? I didn’t expect to see you here,” a female voice spoke.

He turned to see Linda and Kash who just entered the store.

“Yeah, I was just walking Ian here.”

“Alright…Hum, I’m glad to see you’re alright,” she said a bit clumsily, which was pretty unusual for her.

He just nodded and left. He was somehow a bit reassured to see Linda, maybe things would be safer with her around? He didn’t know. He looked around and didn’t see Mickey anymore. Where was he? Did he leave? After all, Ian told him he wouldn’t do anything when Linda was in the shop. Maybe something else picked up his attention? One sure thing was that he would come with his baseball bat to pick up Ian.

**O o O**

Lip came sooner than Karen told him. He wanted to spend more time with her, and he had to explain her that he would have to pick up Ian this evening. When he tapped at the door, Sheila opened, as nice as always, but maybe overly nice.

“You know, maybe some meditation or Yoga could help you,” she told him, “it can be very helpful against traumatic experiences.”

“I’ll think about it,” he replied quickly while going upstairs.

“Oh, wait, Karen in with a…” She didn’t have time to finish her sentence before he opened Karen’s door.

He stopped breathing.

Everything stopped for a brief moment.

A boy was with her.

A guy was with her, getting dressed back.

She just…

It was as if something had been blown over his face.

Another guy…

If he didn’t came sooner, maybe he wouldn’t have seen…

Another guy who quickly put the rest of his clothes and hurriedly passed beside him to get out...A part of him told him to beat him up, but he was unable to feel or move.

He felt devastated; it was as if something was crumbling in him. Karen looked at him with no shame at all. She told him she didn’t expect him to be here that soon, but he hardly registered. She was in her bra, happy and careless and he realized that nothing was wrong for her. He was literally feeling like he was getting stabbed and here she was, just standing there and looking like it was perfectly alright!

“What’s wrong? That’s just a guy I fuck with from time to time, I didn’t expect you so soon.”

He said nothing and exited the house. She called him but he continued to walk, he couldn’t stop, he felt like he would lose his mind if he spoke to her. He felt her hands grabbing his arms and that simple contact made his stomach churl as if he would throw up. He was repulsed! _She_ repulsed him! He turned around and looked at her. He was awfully struck: all he saw for a second was a dog in heat: stupid, horny and unfeeling. His head swirled as if for the first time, the mask of beauty had been taken off and now he could see beneath it. And what he saw sickened him!

“What are you doing? Don’t tell me you’re jealous or some shit like that!”

“Don’t touch me.”

“Lip, seriously, you know I…”

“DON’T TOUCH ME, YOU FUCKING BITCH!”

She gaped like a fish and he freed himself from her grip before walking again.

“Go fuck yourself!” She yelled.

He just gave her the finger while leaving. Lip felt incredibly bad. Was he that unimportant to her? He knew she was seeing other guys, they never say they were exclusive, but…Did she have to do that now? When he was feeling so bad? After something like this happened to him? If this had happened to her, he wouldn’t have go and see other girls. In fact he hadn’t seen any girls since he had this relationship with her. But her…But maybe he shouldn’t have insulted her? Maybe he was overreacting…

“Are you sure she really is what you think? I mean, is that what you expected?”

Ian’s question hurt a lot, maybe because it was legitimate. He had told his brother everything once he came to pick him up, and it didn’t seem to surprise Ian that much. “We never said we would be exclusive, it’s true.”

“Okay, but does that mean she has to go and sleep with guys when you’re feeling bad? Do you even really want that?”

No…Karen had something he had really loved, maybe it was the sass, maybe her liveliness, but now…Maybe he really changed, because right now, she appeared differently in his eyes. That feeling he had with her…Oh it had been unbearable! It seemed like there was something with her, like a stale smell…or as if something repugnant was under her skin, just waiting to break out. He wouldn’t have done such a thing if she had been captured; he would have done everything to make her feel good, but she…Even when he was in her home and she made advances, he had the impression to be only something she could use to fulfill some needs. Did he really matter to her? Was she right for him? For now she wasn’t, he knew that.

“I don’t know, I just…I have something for her, but…I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong about her indeed. Well, doesn’t matter, bitch doesn’t matter! What about you? Did something happened?”

“Well, no. Mickey didn’t come, that’s weird.”

“He might be preparing something. You should be careful.”

Ian was about to say something when he saw Mickey walking at the other side of the street. And he was staring at him. Ian didn’t say a word to Lip. He knew he promised not to conceal, but his brother went through enough shit today.

“Did you get anything from Kash?”

“No, I didn’t. I tried to speak with Linda to know what he did that night, but she didn’t have time for me. But seriously, Lip, it’s not him.”

He still had doubts. A grown man sleeping with a teenager…He wondered if he should talk about him to the police. Yet Ian wouldn’t forgive him.

**O o O**

The next day went pretty uneventfully for everyone. Lip and Ian continued to search info about serial killers. They found many who killed young men out of sexual need, Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy were the most notorious, but there were others. Lip even read some shit about profiling and all, it could be useful. He wanted to take his mind away from Karen as much as possible. The more he thought about it, the more he was angry at her. Ian practiced as usual and Carl actually asked him to teach him a few things.

“I want to kick like you!”

Ian accepted, he and Carl wouldn’t spend that much time together, it was nice to do something with him for a change. The training stopped when he received another visit from Mandy. Ian, Lip and she chatted and drank a few beers in the living room when Fiona came back home, obviously upset.

“Guys, I need to have a word with you.”

“What is it?”

She hesitated, and finally explained: “Well, I asked Tony to update me about the case, and he told me they still got nothing. Like, no lead, no DNA, nothing.”

“But, Lip gave them the crime scene.”

“Apparently it had been cleaned carefully between the moment Lip left and when the police got there.”

At this, Lip turned to Mandy: “You were right: cops sucks.”

Fiona went on: “I’m telling you that because you need to be careful, guys, okay? I know you think I’m overprotective, but you have to be cautious.”

To her surprise, her brother agreed with no protests. They were usually a bit stubborn and didn’t like to be treated like kids. Yet this time they were too aware of the danger. Ian eventually prepared to leave for work and Lip got up to walk him there again when his brother stopped him.

“It’s alright, Lip, I won’t get attacked in the middle of the day. Maybe Mickey could, but I can handle him. I’ll take the bat with me if you want.”

“I prefer to walk with you.”

“I’ll be fine. Stay with Mandy, she came to see us and I can’t be here.”

“…Okay. I’ll still come to pick you up this evening.”

Ian was right indeed: nothing happened to him on the way. Kash and he spoke a bit, until Linda called him for something. His boss seemed annoyed and Ian felt a little bad for him.

“Take care of the costumer and maybe refill the shelves, alright?”

The boy simply nodded. After a few costumers, he went to the backroom, when he heard someone behind him closing the door and locking it. Thinking Kash was back, he turned around with no fear but felt a cold wave when he saw who it was.

Mickey…

The dark-haired boy didn’t even let him speak or move. Mickey was on him in an instant, and pinned him against the wall. Ian tried to push him away: “Get the fuck away from here!”

“I owe you something.”

Ian pushed him harder and they fought together, the redhead tried to hit him on the throat once more but the boy took his arm and punched him in the guts hard. He punched Ian hard in the face, making him stumble before pushing him to the ground. The bigger boy straddled him, and grabbed his wrists with both hands. He tried to bring them together and hold those in one hand, but the red head resisted: “Stop struggling, you’re only making that longer than needed!” It certainly didn’t convince Ian who continued to wriggle. He twisted his body, rubbing it against Mickey, he tried to arch his back and free his wrists. Suddenly, Ian felt something against his stomach. He knew exactly what kind of hardness this was.

Mickey was…What the hell?

He gaped at this and stopped all motions. Mickey stopped in his tracks as well he realized that he was hard and Ian had felt it. He saw how astonishment replaced the fear in the ginger’s eyes.

_Fuck…_

They looked at each other silently for a short moment, not saying anything. Suddenly, Mickey released one of his hands, grabbed his hair, laid down over the boy and kissed him. The stun immobilized Ian for a moment Mickey was kissing him? Mickey the homophobic thug who kept threatening him was kissing him?! His lips went on Ian’s neck and greedily worked on it. Ian woke up from his trance-like state:

“Mickey, stop it!”

The bigger boy went on and Ian started to panic. He tried to push him away with his free hand but he didn’t have that much strength. What was he going to do? He felt Mickey’s hand sliding under his shirt and he tensed.

“Stop! Stop that!”

He hit him on the ear and Mickey yelped in pain. He looked at Ian in the eyes and the red-head yelled: “Get off, you fucking rapist!”

It was as if Mickey received an electric shot. Ian was about to trash but didn’t even have to do that. Mickey almost jumped back on his feet and backed away. The younger boy got back on his feet as well, grabbing a shelf as if he needed to hold on something. Both were panting and Ian felt angrier and angrier. How dared he! He went to the door and opened it. “Out!”

With much more meekness than he ever showed, Mickey got out of the room before turning round: “If you say one word…”

“OUT! GET THE FUCK OUT!”

The older boy gulped and left the store. Ian was trembling. Should he tell someone? What if Mickey tried again? What if…Oh gosh, the thought hit him hard: what if it was him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, things doesn't get easier for Ian and Lip! Don't hesitate to review!


	5. I Get Off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everybody! Thanks for the reviews, hope you'll like this new chapter!
> 
> Title from Halestorm's song, I Get Off. Ian and Mickey would totally deserve an amw with that song in my opinion.

After Ian’s departure for work, Lip stayed with Mandy as his brother suggested. He couldn’t help but bring Karen on the table, telling Mandy everything that happened, how he felt weird with her and how she went with another guy. He wondered what she would say.

“What a fucking bitch,” Mandy huffed once he was finished.

“So you think she was wrong?”

“Yeah. I mean, I got that you were in a free relationship and all, but just for some times, she could have gave her pussy some vacation.”

He huffed at this. “I don’t know, maybe I went too far when I insulted her.”

“If you did, it means something.”

“The thing is, I would have never thought of going to another girl if it happened to her. And now that I thought about it, I didn’t fuck any other chick since I started seeing her. But she sees other guys, even though she knows I won’t see anyone else. To me, we shared something, but maybe I built that up in my head.”

“You feel like she takes but won’t give anything in return?”

“Yeah. And also, I feel like I’m repulsed by her. I couldn’t fuck her, after that psycho…took me away, I couldn’t fuck her anymore, even before seeing her with that dude.”

He continued to speak about it, and the more he spoke, the more Karen started to grow hideous to him. His experience was short but it had been enough to make him change his views about a lot of things. He didn’t know what to think about it. He wanted to be the old Lip, he wanted to be that guy who loved Karen and felt a deep connection with her, but was it possible? Because Karen didn’t seem to feel the same way, she was just using him as some tool, just like that killer tried to use him…

Mandy listened to him, and he felt more and more comfortable speaking to her. It was as if opening to her was easy, almost natural, even though he wouldn’t speak of everything. Maybe that was because she saw him as a smart person who could escape a dangerous killer, and not as a victim.

“Maybe you need time away from her, anyway she won’t get bored according to what you told me.”

Lip huffed in resignation. Yeah, that was maybe better.

“Maybe I shouldn’t see her again at all.”

Mandy took his hand gently and squeezed it. “I wish I could tell you that I know how break up are hard, but the thing is, I never got a real boyfriend. Every guy I had a thing for just fucked me randomly. I never had an actual relationship; Ian is the only one in my life who had been somehow a boyfriend.”

“Our lives kinda suck, when you think about it.”

She gave a sad grin: “Sorry. I guess I’m not cheering you up that much.”

“No, it’s fine, if I can talk to you, I guess I can listen to you as well.”

“Now that’s taking and giving.”

He smiled. She was really not the girl he believed her to be. Now he knew why Ian called her his best friend.

**O o O**

Kash had returned to the store once more, not imagining what Ian went through, and the teenager kept his mouth shut about it. He rejected Kash’s advances again; anyway he didn’t have to do that for too long, because Linda called again. She was really sick, and so was one of their kids and she needed a lot of attention. It was obvious Kash couldn’t bear it, but Ian couldn’t give him what he wanted, not right now. A part of him was relieved to see him leave, that way he wouldn’t insist to have him, but on the other hand, he was really alone…What if something happened again?

Being alone gave him time to think; Ian had no idea what to do. Should he speak to Lip about what happened? He had to: they promised they would hide anything from each other. Yet if Lip heard that, he would go crazy and would do something foolish! But he couldn’t shut up either. What if it was really Mickey? He was acting like a homophobe although he was a restrained homosexual, who probably hated himself for what he was. He enjoyed violence, he liked to intimidate people and hurt them…

As he was thinking about it, he saw someone walking toward the door and his guts tightened when he saw it was Mickey again. Oh, hell! The fear he felt while being pinned under him came back, he didn’t want that again! When Mickey entered the store, Ian tensed. He couldn’t act like a pussy, he had to keep collected, he was a future soldier after all. He seized the gun from under the counter, keeping it hidden. The dark-haired boy just approached slowly, looking at Ian up and down. He was about to say something but Ian beat him to it:

“What do you want?!”

“To make sure you’ll shut up about what happened.”

“Depends, you’d better have a good explanation for that,” the red-head dared, stunned at his own audacity.

“Listen, you little shit, I don’t have to give you any…”

“Yes you do, you molested me in the back room!”

Mickey looked around but there was no one. He looked frustrated and embarrassed: “What do you expect me to tell you, uh? I wasn’t going to rape you anyway. I’m not a fucking rapist!”

“So what was it?”

“I…I don’t know. It was a mistake anyway”

“You bully me, lock me up and then you pin me down to kiss me! What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“Nothing!”

Ian couldn’t take it anymore. Fear was pretty mute compared to anger. He had to know the truth, because if this was Mickey, then it meant that the guy who took his brother also molested him! And that was unbearable! “Is it you?”

“Me what?”

“The guy who did that! The one who kidnapped my brother!”

Surprisingly, Mickey looked more horrified than angry at those accusations. At this moment, Ian started to think he was innocent. “Are you fucking kidding me?! I…Okay, I got out of line, but do you really think I would go around, raping and killing guys! Seriously?! And I don’t give a shit about Lip!”

All of sudden, Ian drew out the gun and took Mickey by the collar, making the thug’s eyes grow bigger. He put his gun on Mickey’s temple: “I’m in ROTC, I plan to be a soldier, so be sure of one thing: I won’t hesitate to shoot you. I don’t know if it’s you or not, but if you are that son of a bitch, I’ll murder you!”

Mickey was breathing hard, he had already seen guns and all, but this was the first time someone actually put one on his temple. More importantly, this was someone who had the will to kill; he could see it in Ian’s eyes: determination. Mickey felt hot and cold at the same time. He had always been taught to be fearless, but right now…

“Get that fucking gun away from me! I’m not that fucker…”

“How can I think otherwise, Mickey?! You locked me away to beat me, you molested me, you’re a violent bully, you like guys and you don’t want to admit, and more of all, you mocked my brother after he was kidnapped! You said you couldn’t blame that fucker who took him!” He tightened his grip: “Tell me, how does it feels when someone actually threatens to kill you, Mickey? Because whatever you feel, Lip felt it!”

He released him and pushed him away. Mickey looked at him as if Ian had grown an extra arm. He backed away and the redhead lowered the gun, not releasing it though. Kash came back and Mickey just left the store without a word.

“What happened?”

“It’s alright, we just had an argument and I threatened him with the gun.”

Kash’s face at those words made him grin. Yet he was soon plunged in his own thoughts again. Was it really Mickey? Now that he thought about it with a cooler head, Ian had the feeling that he had been sincere when the thug proclaimed he wasn’t the killer. There had been something too genuine, or Mickey was one hell of an actor, but it didn’t sound like him.

That evening, he decided to speak about it with Lip after his brother came to pick him up from work. Mandy was home by now. His brother was livid when he heard this; he got up from his bed and took the baseball bat.

“Milkovich or not, brothers or not, we’re killing that perv!”

Ian grabbed him by the shoulders and stood between him and the exit: “Lip! No! Listen, I’m not even sure it’s him.”

“What? You’re kidding!”

“No. Listen, I know things about guys, and I’m pretty sure Mickey didn’t plan that out. He probably wanted to beat me and that’s all. But he just seemed lost and confused, he obeyed me without a word when I told him to get out!”

“So what, he is innocent just because of that?!”

“I don’t say it’s not him, but we need to be sure. You should have seen his face when I called him a rapist, he could hardly look at me in the eyes. We can’t be reckless.”

Lip breathed in deeply. He sat down on Ian’s bed and started to think. His brother was maybe right, Mickey was obviously weird, but was it really him? And Mandy…Mickey was her brother, for the sake of her he had to think before acting.

“From what I knew about the guy, Mickey isn’t the methodical kind, he’s rather violent and fucking impulsive. This killer, the guy who took me…He was organized and careful…” Lip murmured.

“That doesn’t sound like Mickey. He is more like the impulsive kind of guy, he won’t act much before acting.”

“Yeah, but I never thought he would kiss you either. Was it really the first time he did something like that to you?”

“Yeah. Each time he sees me, he tries to hurt me or to bother me, but he never tried anything like that.”

Lip tried to think again. He had to step back and give this another look, maybe.

“Maybe Mickey is an immature idiot. Maybe he acts like a kid: when he likes someone and doesn’t know what to do, he gets aggressive and annoying. Tis’ probably the reason why he kept taking stuff from Kash: because you were there.”

This made sense actually. “So, Mickey likes me but can’t tell me or anyone and he took out his frustration that way.”

“Yeah. His family isn’t exactly open-minded, except for Mandy. It could be him having a stupid crush on you, but we can’t exclude him from the list of our suspects, got it? Him being gay doesn’t make him a killer, but the way he acted with you is definitely wrong and suspect. We need to know more about him.”

“Maybe Mandy could help with that,” Ian suggested.

“Yeah…”

To tell the truth, he wanted to see Mandy again anyway. She and Ian were the ones who helped him the most.

“Now that I think about it, if he was so focused on you, why taking me and not you?”

“Yeah. And you said that psycho hesitated to kill you when you were speaking; Not sure Mickey would hesitate if he decided to kill someone.”

“Yeah…I’m still pissed off at him, though, he’d better not touch you again!”

He didn’t tell Ian but he wouldn’t wait for Mickey to do another ‘mistake’ like this one. He would find a way to keep the guy away from his brother, he swore it. There was no way Ian would go through that kind of shit!

**O o O**

They would begin school again very soon, and neither of them were thrilled by it. Yet that wasn’t really their biggest preoccupation for now. The biggest problem was still Mickey. They didn’t want to tell Mandy about it, he was her brother; they couldn’t put her in that situation. He hung out with her the day after Mickey kissed him. They spoke about Karen and Lip and they both agreed that he should never see her again.

“You know, people ask me questions about Lip,” she told him.

“What kind?”

“Well, what happened, how he is, if you told me details or shit like that.”

“Seriously, people should shut the fuck up. I hope Lip will be alright at school,” he sighed. “What did you tell them?”

“I told them I didn’t ore than them, that Lip told everything to the cop and that was it. Cynthia thinks I know more than this, and she said that if I don’t share what I know I’m not a true friend. Can you believe that?”

“Cynthia is kinda dumb, I always thought so.”

“Well, you were right. Sometimes it seems like its freaking entertainment to them!”

He knew that. A lot of people would ask him if Lip was okay, how they were doing, things which sounded nice but he could guess they mostly wanted to know more. He eventually walked Mandy home and they crossed Mickey who was going out.  At his sight, Ian couldn’t help but feel fear, and he was glad to have Mandy at his side.

“The fuck are you doing?”

“What do you think dipshit? Ian is walking me home.”

“You should hang out with other people; you’re starting to stink as bad as them.”

“Fuck off,” she snarled.

Her brother just walked away. She shook her head out of annoyance and told Ian she would maybe pass by their house later. Ian barely parted from her since a few minutes that he felt someone grabbing his arm and turn him round by force. It was no surprise to see Mickey, and Ian felt his guts contorting; he freed himself from his grasp.

“I hope for you that you still keep your fucking mouth shut.”

“Fuck you, Mickey. You’re the one who should shut the fuck up!”

At this, Mickey grabbed him by the collar and drew him closer: “Listen, you little shit, you threatened me with a gun and you’re lucky enough I’m not beating the shit out of you!”

Ian pushed him away and punched him, only to get punched in return. His head snapped to the side, Mickey took hold of his arm and twisted it behind his back painfully. Ian hissed in pain at this.

“Not so tough without a gun, uh?”

“Let go!”

“Listen to me, little shit, you’d rather not anger me, I’m letting your little gun threat pass, but you should still be careful. You have been lucky enough to beat me once, it won’t happen twice.”

With that he released him and pushed him away. He hoped that the Gallagher would interpret it as some kind of leniency, but it wasn’t exactly that. When he had pressed the redhead against him, he had started to feel something in his navel, and he didn’t want to have an embarrassing reaction. What happened yesterday was enough. Ian looked at him but surprisingly there was no anger in his eyes anymore.

“I won’t tell anyone you’re gay, if that’s what you fear so much,” he murmured gently.

“I’m not a fucking fag, got it?”

“You…Seriously? Why are you trying to hide that from me? It’s not as if you could. I don’t care if you’re…”

He was interrupted by a rough punch in the stomach. He was bent in half at this.

“You know nothing of me! And you say that once more, you won’t have any teeth left.”

This stunned Ian: was Mickey really trying to fool himself that much? The brunet told him once more he’d rather shut up before going away. In spite of his sore arm, his aching belly and the threats, he couldn’t help but feel a bit sympathetic toward Mickey. Coming out was hard and that guy probably had one hell of a tough time to do that. He hadn’t even told Fiona and the rest of his family yet, only Lip and Mandy knew about it, and before them, he had Kash to talk to. Mickey didn’t have the relief of having someone he could trust with his secret...  

It dawned on him then: Mickey needed help. Maybe they didn’t have to be enemies.

When Mandy visited them that evening, the two boys brought her in their bedroom, and they smoked jays while talking. Ian had told Lip about what happened and he wished even more to do something to get back at Mickey.

“What’s wrong with your brother recently?” Asked Lip.

“What do you mean?”

“…The way he threatens Ian, he is being more insistent. Do we have to worry about it?”

Ian didn’t really like to bring the subject, but they had to. “I don’t know, he won’t talk to me. In fact, since Ian beat him and all, he has been…Off. But Dad is for something in that.”

“How?”

She looked a bit hesitant: “You promise you won’t go around and tell?”

“After all you did for me, I wouldn’t even think about it.”

A grin appeared on her face, and Lip could have swore her cheek reddened a bit. Was he seeing things? Ian also promised not to tell.

“Okay. It's not that much, but it's still private. My dad, as you can probably imagine, is all about being a man and all, and being strong and shit like that. Not much with me, because I’m a girl…Though…He has his way to make me miserable at times, but that’s not the point. With my brother he always insists that they can’t be weak, that they have to be men, that they are Milkoviches and all...If they don’t act like he expect them, he beat the shit out of them. And it’s not easy to stand up against my dad. He always says it’s to toughen them up. He is worse with Mickey, because he expect more of him. He beat him more often than the rest of us, telling him he had to be a mn, a tough one, otherwise...” She stopped here, but they got the idea.

“He won’t have fags as sons,” Ian summed up.

“…Yeah.”

“I don’t even want to imagine what he would do if one of your brothers were gay,” the redhead continued.

“Neither would I! But for now, it doesn’t seem like any of them are gay.”

Oh, if she knew! Should he tell her? No, he told Mickey he wouldn’t tell anyone and he wanted to keep his words. Lip took a drag and let the smoke come out slowly. This wasn’t really satisfying, Mandy told them the obvious. He already understood that Terry would be abusive, homophobic and all. It wasn’t surprising that Mickey and his brothers got beaten by their dad. But at least it confirmed it: Mickey was gay and couldn’t tell or live his sexuality freely. Hell, he had been probably denying his real desires for a long time before snapping. The problem was, he took it out on his brother and he couldn’t tolerate that.

“I know my brother can be a pain in the ass, but he is not as bad as you could think,” she stated gently. “I’ll try to speak to him again.”

“Thanks, it’s really nice,” Lip murmured.

The look they exchanged had something kinda electric. They didn’t speak but didn’t stop looking at each for a short moment before turning their eyes away. Sensing something was happening, Ian found a pretext to leave the room and closed the door behind him. Lip took that occasion to say one last thing to her, alone.

“I can’t let him use Ian as an outlet. I really like you, but your brother has to understand Ian has nothing to do with that shit.”

“You like me?”

He was surprised by this little light in her eyes. This was something he didn’t expect with Mandy. Then, he realized something: she was beautiful; it felt like he never saw it before. He used to find her sexy, but now he realized she wasn’t just that. She was more. She had that laid back stance he kinda liked, that devilish smile under which some true gentleness would linger…The discomfort he was feeling each time Karen had tried to make advances on him wasn’t here at all. In fact, he felt drawn to her, there was something passing between them at this moment, and it made him feel like the old Lip.

But it was also something in her eyes, something he never saw with Karen, those shined with something really refreshing and sweet. Without even thinking, he leaned toward her and kissed her.

She was stunned at this but she kissed him back with no hesitation. They didn’t think at all. When their clothes were on the floor they weren’t even thinking about it. Lip stood up, took her hand to make her stand with him and took a few steps back. He realized Mandy was entirely naked and he devoured her with his eyes. Oh, there was something beautiful in her, thin legs and a soft, thin, waist which drew a violin shape with her hips. Her breast soft as well and round, waiting to be kissed…There was really something in her that Karen didn’t have, he couldn’t point out what, but he wanted it badly. He kissed her once more with more passion.

Mandy felt like she was melting. No boys ever looked at her the way Lip just did. Oh and those blue eyes lightened with desire! Those firm and strong arms embracing her, being pressed against this well-toned chest…She wanted this guy! She could make him forget this shitty girlfriend of his and have him all for herself! She pushed him down on the bed and kissed his face and lips hungrily while he was putting on protection. They kept stroking each other and touching. The kept rolling, almost fighting to know who would be on top, but it was a delicious fight!

Lip looked at her, she was fire, she had those cat-like eyes which engulfed him…She was a little devil, but oh if every devils in hell were like her, he would happily get damnation!

Energy fueled him and he felt incredibly alive with her. For the first time since he got captured, he was himself again; even better, he was savoring this crazy, adorable girl more than any other he ever got! She filled him with a fire he had been eager to feel since he faced death. He yelled her name with passion.

When they lay panting, she had her ear against his chest and he caressed her hair. “What took us so long?” Asked she.

“I don’t know! But I want to do it again.”

She giggled and kissed him. He caressed her face, he liked to cuddle with her, and there was a strange sense of comfort with her.

She left only in the morning, the rest of the Gallaghers were pretty surprised to see her here, but none of them commented, except for Carl who pointed out the fact she slept in their room. Lip just told him to shut up, and Ian looked at his brother with a little smile after Mandy’s departure.

“You got more than what you were looking for, am I wrong?” He whispered.

“Much much more,” Lip murmured with a grin.

Ian felt something bloom in him at this sight. Lip looked alive, happy and not haunted by the horrors he experienced. He was the teenager he used to be again and that was good. The redhead felt incredibly thankful toward Mandy, and it couldn’t be better: his best friend and his brother!

“So, I guess you’re done with Karen?”

“Karen who?”

The two laughed at this, and they didn’t know why, but they went on laughing, as if they couldn’t stop, attracting Fiona, Carl and Liam’s attention. Their baby brother laughed, entertained at the sight of his brothers’ hilarity. The three’s attitude made both Fiona and Carl giggle as well, their hilarity getting contagious somehow.

“Why are you laughing?” Asked Fiona while giggling.

“It’s stupid!”

The five of them laughed together, unleashing the tension they all felt since the kidnapping. It was good to hear that sound again in the house. Fiona continued to chuckle and passed her arms around Lip’s shoulders, happy to see him like that. He rubbed his sister’s arm with affection while giggling. Only Debbie wouldn’t laugh with them, she was out to pick up the mail. 

When their little sister came back home with the mail, she was confused by the general laughter. She put a few letters on the table, was about to ask what was going on when something caught her eyes. She looked down at it and frowned in confusion. Ian noticed it, and though a smile still dance don his lips, he stopped giggling:

“What is it?”

“There is a weird one, look.”

Ian saw one indeed with no stamp, only a name written on it: _Philip Gallagher_. He froze at this. His other siblings saw it as well and the merry atmosphere suddenly faded completely. Lip took the letter hurriedly.

“Wait, Lip!”

“Shut up.” When they saw what it was, the five of them froze on place. There were two pictures in it. The first was especially chilling.

It was a picture of Lip…It was a picture of Lip unconscious and tied to a wooden pole…Only one person could have possessed such a picture…

Lip felt nauseous, while the others were struck at this. They knew what happened to their brother, but now they could _see_ it. And it was entirely different. There was no blood, Lip wasn’t even really wounded, but it was still sickeningly grim.

They looked at the second picture and it was as scary but in another way: it was Ian and Lip walking in the street. It had probably been taken yesterday, when Lip was walking with Ian to Kash’n Grab…

Debbie spoke in a trembling voice: “Behind it, there is something.” Taking deep and big breath, Lip turned it around slowly and saw a message at the back. Only a few words were written on it but it was enough to scare all of them:

_You’re both mine._

Ian and Lip looked at each other. Fiona and Ian immediately went to lock all the doors and closed the curtains while Lip called the cops. He mentally slapped himself: he should have waited for them before touching that fucking letter! _You’re both mine_ …Oh God, no, he was targeting Ian now!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it! Don't hesitate to review!


	6. Wicked Game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everybody! I know it had been long, I hope you'll enjoy that chapter.
> 
> Chapter named from Wicked Game by Chris Isaak

Another boy had been killed.

They were agape when they saw this on TV. Another boy who was only fifteen got killed, and both Lip and Ian knew him. He wasn’t a friend, but he was in Highschool with them. God…

After the message, a police officer had been assigned to watch the house for a few days and they had been instructed not to go outside after sunset. But now that there was a new murder, the protection had been taken off and the family would have to watch one another. Carl had pointed out that rich people would have probably gotten way better, but the state wouldn’t waste money to protect a family of ghetto trashes. Tony promised he would check on regular basis.

In order to speak about it, Fiona had reunited the whole family around the table, plus Steve.

“We have to make sure nothing will happen anymore. From now on, we’ll all have a weapon, and we’ll go out alone as less as possible.”

“But that killer doesn’t want me or Carl,” Debbie pointed out.

“We can’t take any chance.”

“I can get knives for Ian and I,” Lip stated. “I know someone who can get me some.”

“I’ll keep my baseball bat with me,” Carl stated.

“Okay. Debbie, you’ll also take a baseball bat.”

“I can have a gun easily; having one in the house could be good. We would just have to put it far away from Liam’s reach,” Steve suggested.

“Good. Also, I don’t want any of you to wander alone, especially not at night. Lip and Ian in particular. We do as the police said for once.”

They couldn’t protest at this, it was too important and both Lip and Ian were feeling too protective toward each other to disagree. In fat, Lip knew where he would begin with. Ian said Mickey wasn’t the killer, and maybe he was right. Yet he would take no chance. hen he took Ian to work that afternoon, they spoke about school.

“It’s starting tomorrow. I really don’t want to go, if it wasn’t for you, I would give up that shit,” Lip declared. He really meant it, it was only because he didn’t want to leave Ian alone that he would go. It would also allow him to hang with Mandy, which was a plus. He would see Karen as well.

“Fiona would have your ass.”

“Don’t care.”

“Lip, seriously, you could really do something. Do you really want to end up working in McDonalds to pay your freaking rent? You could have sweet life.”

“You’re one to talk. You want to go die in some shithole.”

“Shut up!”

They reached the store but this time Lip hung around a bit. Ian didn’t like what he wanted to do, but Lip wouldn’t be convinced otherwise. They continued to speak while Ian was working, until he saw Mickey coming from the other side of the street. This was the moment! Lip stepped out of the store before Mickey could get in and the two found themselves facing each other. The Gallagher stood with determined eyes, and when it was clear to Mickey that he wouldn’t walk away from the door, the brunet tilted his head, looking annoyed and quite threatening.

“The fuck are you doing?”

“I know what you did to my brother.”

His expression utterly changed. His eyes were enough to show all his guilt and shame. “Look, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about…”

“You know what I mean. And believe me; it’s only thanks to Mandy that I’m not killing you.”

At this, Mickey snorted and suddenly grabbed Lip roughly by the collar threateningly: “As if you could kill me!”

He was speaking with assurance, yet Lip could sense that something was wrong. Still in  Mickey’s hold, he kept his assurance:

“I could. By telling your dear Daddy what you truly are.”

This time, Lip saw the fear. Mickey was terrified of his father, and the perspective of someone telling Terry was probably dreadful. It was a nasty blackmail but Lip couldn’t care less, he wouldn’t just let that guy harass Ian.

“You…”

“I’ll keep my mouth shut, for your sister’s sake, but not a single move against my brother again! Otherwise, you’ll force me to do some shit you won’t like.            And let me tell you that Lydia put camera in the store, so what you did to my brother had been recorded.”

“I could kill you for that!”

“Didn’t you try already?”

Obviously stunned and confused, Mickey was speechless at first, until he understood what Lip meant. “Seriously? You also think I’m the shithead who took you?!”

“Why not? After all I’m so annoying I deserve to be killed.”

“Okay, first off, if I wanted to kill every annoying guy around, I would have killed your fucking father first! Second, I don’t give a shit about you Gallagher, not even enough to kill you! And even if I was a fucking faggot, I wouldn’t put my hands on you! So no, I’m not a serial killer or a rapist.”

“No, just a molester.”

Once again, Mickey looked really uncomfortable and ashamed; pissed off, yes, but uncomfortable. Lip spoke again:

“Now you’re leaving, and you’re stealing somewhere else, but you’re not getting into this store.”

“You’re gonna stop me?”

“Do you really want me to start yelling at you for being a pervert who molests underage boys? In front of everyone?”

Mickey couldn’t help but throw a glance around. If people heard that…He wouldn’t be able to bear their glances; worse, what if his father heard about it?! He would be dead for sure. But fuck! Those Gallaghers messed up with him for long enough already! Yet what could he do?

“You think you’re so fucking smart? Maybe this is the reason why all of this happens to you, Gallagher.”

He left with those words. Lip wanted to kill him, but all that mattered for now was Ian’s safety. Now he was pretty sure that ass wouldn’t come and hurt his little brother anymore. Ian got out of the store: “You really did it.”

“Yeah. And I’ll do it again anytime.”

**O o O**

Going back to school felt like being exposed naked. Lip was walking with Ian and Mandy, and though he tried to ignore the stares, he found it impossible. He could hear a few whispers, although he couldn’t decipher those. Some people asked whether he was okay or not; Lip suspected it to be morbid curiosity, though a few of them looked genuinely concerned. He crossed Karen’s path. She looked at him with hatred, but it didn’t really hurt. He was just once again disgusted at her. He felt the need to take Mandy’s hand but she was supposed to be Ian’s boyfriend. He envied his brother right now, because Ian and Mandy were walking hand in hand.

Things felt even worse when he had to go in class, without his brother or his secret girlfriend. The pals he had asked him questions but understood soon enough he wanted to be left alone. He was an object of curiosity, just like with Karen. Right now, the other students and even the teachers were Karens and he found himself hating that.

_Calm down, it will pass. Something else will get their attention soon enough._

At some point, the teacher looked at him, and for some weird reason, he wondered if the killer could be a teacher. He couldn’t help but imagine that the murderer was one of them, casually giving him class and watching him while preparing his next move…No, it couldn’t be that…Right? But what if it was? After all, a teacher would be in contact with teens and would easily spot preys. He tried to focus on his classes, to forget it.

Ian also had his lot of questions, but he brushed those away. At least people didn’t know he was maybe a target for the killer, otherwise it would have been worse.

A few days went on like this; Lip was trying to handle the situation as well as possible, either ignoring people or replying to them with his sharp words. He was focusing more than usual on classes just to take his mind somewhere else whenever he couldn’t be with Mandy. He could make him forget all of this unlike no one else. Ian had a much harder time to focus on school; two things bothered him greatly: the note sent by the killer and Mickey Milkovitch.

After Lip’s confrontation with Mickey, Ian didn’t see him again. He didn’t know if he was relieved or disappointed by that.  Mandy didn’t know about what happened; it really bothered him to leave her in the dark, but he didn’t want to tell about Mickey. In spite of everything the boy had done to him, Ian knew too well how difficult it was to be gay in such a place, and therefore he couldn’t help but feel some kind of solidarity. It was up to Mickey only to tell his sister.

The more he thought about it, the less he suspected Mickey. Yet there was still something nagging him inside. He wanted to talk with Mickey. He didn’t know why, he knew it was stupid, but he couldn’t help it. He felt like something needed to be done, that they had only seen the tip of the iceberg. Maybe he was simply feeling concerned about another gay guy. What Mickey did to him had scared him, at times he was still hesitant to go in the store’s backroom. Yet he remembered Mickey stopped when he told him to, he remembered the look of shame. He wouldn’t excuse Mickey but he could forgive him.

After school, he went in the streets alone. Lip still had one class, they had previously agreed Ian would wait a bit for him, but he broke their agreement. He needed to do something, alone. He walked in the street where Mickey would usually hang around, hoping he would find him there; he couldn’t go to the Milkovitch House, if Terry or one of Mickey’s brother were there, he wouldn’t be able to speak with him. Thankfully enough, he spotted him walking out of a store which he probably robbed.  

“Mickey?”

The dark-haired boy looked at him and seemed as surprised as annoyed. “Dafuq do you want, Gallagher?”

“I just want to talk.”

“Why? I thought your dear big brother got you covered.”

The way Mickey titled his head slightly made Ian feel a bit strange. He never saw Mickey as someone else than the thug who would rob and terrorize Kash. But since this all happened, Ian also saw Mickey was someone confused and probably scared, making him a bit more human. And this human had some kind of weird charm to him, he had to admit that. Yet he didn’t dwell on that and defended Lip:

“Do you blame him? When you thought I raped your sister you were pretty mad. Well, Lip is just like you about that.”

Somehow, Mickey knew it was true, and maybe it angered him even more: to know that Lip was simply protective toward his little brother, just like he was protective toward his little sister; it meant he was a perv indeed. He was ashamed of that memory; he had found himself reimagining the scene, fantasizing on how things could have gone better for the two of them. But fantasies were pretty useless. Ian sighed:

“Look, I don’t want to talk about what happened, or, not exactly. Just…I don’t care what you are, really.” Mickey was about to reply but Ian stopped him: “And stop trying to say it was nothing, one doesn’t kiss another boy like that when they are purely straight.”

Mickey rubbed his eyes, as if he was both annoyed and tired. “So you still think I’m gay and a killer?”

“A killer, no; at least not the one who took my brother, but you like guys for sure.”

“And why do you give a shit, Gallagher? I won’t approach you anymore, isn’t it what you wanted?”

No. He wasn’t really sure what he wanted, but he surely didn’t wish to let that in the past like some weird dream. Something had to be done.

“I’m gay.”

It came out before he could think, it seemed like the simplest and most obvious solution. Oh Fuck! Did he just came out to Mickey Milkovitch?! The guy ho absolutely wanted to be seen as a homophobic thug?! Mickey turned toward him in surprise. He didn’t know what astonished him the most: Ian being gay, or him confessing.

“You…You go out with my sister!”

“She accepted to cover me.”

Oh God, what was he doing?! Yeah, Lip had given him some protection, but it was still a fucking big risk. Yet he couldn’t keep being a coward. He had to do something, he had to prove he could be brave, for his brother. He stepped toward him but Mickey stopped him right away:

“Don’t approach me!”

“Mickey…”

“Count yourself lucky I’m not breaking your skull, you faggot!”

With that, he turned away, leaving Ian completely dumbfounded. The redhead rolled his eyes. Well, I Mickey wanted to live in his denial, be it. He couldn’t try forever, he had other problems to handle, much bigger than a guy who couldn’t admit his sexuality. Yet he couldn’t help but feel incredibly frustrated. Why? It’s not as if he cared! The only Milkovitch who really mattered was Mandy. He hoped he didn’t get her in trouble for admitting she was his beard…No, Mickey wouldn’t hurt his sister. He sighed and went back to school to find back Lip and Mandy.

**O o O**

Things could have ended up like that, with Ian deciding to give up on Mickey and the latter going on in his denial. But a few days after this conversation, Ian understood that it wasn’t over. It had left an impact on Mickey. How did he know? Simple: Mickey was practically always around. At first, the redhead thought he was wrong, that maybe it was coincidence, but he soon realized it was something else. Mickey was there when he would get out of Kash’n Grab, he was often hanging in their street, he would often be on Ian’s path when he would go out…Hell, he even went back to school! Mickey hadn’t put a foot on school in ages! He had pretended he wanted to keep an eye on Mandy, but Ian was no fool. Now, the young man wasn’t always around Ian, of course, but his presence became very frequent.

What did it mean? Was Mickey preparing something against him? Was it some kind of psychological game? No. Mickey wasn’t the kind to pull on a psychological game at all, he was the kind to go and get shit done with his fists. There was another possibility, but Ian didn’t dare to think about it. It was impossible and he felt like an arrogant prick just thinking about the possibility of Mickey having something for him. No, the young man was certainly not pursuing him because he wanted him, right? No, he was surely preparing something against him because Ian had been stupid enough to come out to him.

When he got out of his work that night, he saw Mickey sitting on some steps with his brother Iggy, drinking a beer. They looked like they were casually drinking outside, in fact, Iggy probably thought they were really doing that. But when Ian looked at Mickey he saw that the young man was staring at him intensely. It made him quiver a bit. When their eyes crossed Mickey looked away and Ian did exactly the same.

Maybe Mickey was just making sure Ian wouldn’t open his mouth about what happened? He didn’t know, he wanted to go to Mickey and ask him, but he didn’t dare. That was strange. He had been ballsy enough to threaten him with a gun, managed to fight him off, even ame out to him, but he didn’t dare to go and speak to him anymore. Why?

He was shaken out of those thoughts when he saw Lip coming toward him to pick him up. Mandy was with him, and Ian didn’t say a word. He wasn’t sure he wanted to involve them into this, Lip had threatened Mickey and it could really go out of control if he told Terry about his son being gay. As for Mandy, Ian didn’t know what to tell her. How was he supposed to tell his best friend that her brother had kissed him by force after trying to beat him in the backroom? And how was he supposed to explain her that Mickey was stalking him now? She wouldn’t believe him.

But on contrary to what Ian thought, she could have believed it. Mandy herself had noticed something was wrong with her brother, but he refused to say what was bothering him. Maybe it was to avoid their dad? Yet Terry wasn’t as bad as he used to, he was a bit chiller recently. So why was her brother doing something he claimed to hate? Anyway it kinda amused her to see how a lot of people watched themselves around him. Maybe he was really telling the truth? Maybe he was worried about her because she was hanging out with Lip who had been targeted by a serial killer. She still wanted to have a serious discussion with him though, and she also wanted to have one with the two Gallaghers who were both her boyfriends somehow. She felt something was happening they weren’t telling her.

They walked her home and went immediately to their room, taking the laptop from Carl in spite of the boy’s struggle to keep it.

“They still don’t have any lead, do they?”

“Uhuh.” Lip hummed while looking at the news they got.

They were both keeping themselves updated of course, and they both made some theories on who it could be but it was difficult. They had located the place where Lip had been taken. It was a big distance on foot, but a car could reach it in an hour. It was far enough from Chicago and isolated enough to be left alone. They had to know who got away from Chicago at the times of the different kidnappings.

“Maybe we could try to get more infos from Tony, like who they interviewed already,” Ian suggested.

“Tony isn’t the brightest guy ever but I doubt he would do something like that. Wouldn’t hurt to try, though. Maybe we could ask Fiona for help…”

“Guys?”

They both turned to look at Debbie who was standing in the doorframe. She looked so upset they both thought they received another letter. “What’s wrong?”

“I…Yesterday I saw a message on Steve’s phone, and it was from a woman named Candace. I wanted to know who it was so…So I followed him.”

“You’re serious?” Lip breathed out.

“And…He went into a big house, like a mansion or something. So I tried to know what he was doing in there, and today I went there saying I was selling cookies. The lady made me come in, and I saw Steve. Well it’s his family’s house.”

“Steve lives in a mansion?!” Ian exclaimed in disbelief.

“And his name isn’t Steve at all, it’s Jimmy!” She took a deep breath: “Guys he is nothing he told us.”

The two looked at each other. They would have to check that out, if Debbie was right, it was fucking twisted!

“Why would he hide his real identity?” An idea crossed their minds, but it was absolutely crazy. Steve, or Jimmy, or whoever he was, couldn’t be the killer. It was just crazy, he was all over Fiona! Yet according to what they read about serial killers, they often seemed very normal, some of them had families, were married with a respectable job.

“What if Jimmy is using Fiona as a mean to get closer to street boys?” Murmured Ian.

“It can’t be that,” Lip slowly said without enough conviction. “But we have to know, whatever the reason behind it, he is hiding something; better know what it is.”

The three of them agreed on that. None of them could live thinking that the killer might actually share their roof.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hesitate to comment!


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